Alina von Davier, Research Director in Educational Testing Service's Research and Development (R&D) division, received the Division D Significant Contribution to Educational Measurement and Research Methodology Award at the 2013 meeting of the American Educational Research Association (AERA).

Von Davier received the award for her editorship of the book Statistical Models for Test Equating, Scaling, and Linking. The award recognizes published research that represents important conceptual progress in theory and practice of educational measurement and/or educational research methodology. The award's sponsor, AERA Division D, focuses on issues related to measurement and research methodology in the field of educational research.

"Alina von Davier is an acknowledged leader in the field when it comes to equating," says John Mazzeo, Vice President of Statistical Analysis, Data Analysis & Psychometric Research (SADAPR) in ETS's R&D division.

"The collection of authors she assembled includes quite a few ETS psychometricians and research scientists," Mazzeo adds. "The work they produced represents some of the best and most current thinking in the field about equating, scaling and linking. Given the long-standing intellectual leadership that ETS has provided in this particular area of educational measurement, it is especially gratifying to see von Davier's book, and the contributions of her ETS colleagues, recognized in this manner."

The volume von Davier edited approaches equating as a part of a statistical model for measuring test takers' skills, and addresses the research questions and design considerations, as well as considers various equating models, and presents the statistical evaluation of the results.

"This perspective on test equating can aid understanding of similarities of different equating models and speed up the training of psychometricians," von Davier says. "I am glad to see that this perspective is appreciated by my fellow colleagues at AERA."

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